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Does anyone know examples (or name of the pattern) of markup formats where instead of writing format directives _inline_ &lt;b&gt;like this&lt;/b&gt; you do it _out-of-the-line_ like:

```text writing format directives inline like this
 bold like this```


I'm not sure I understand your example. Is the line `bold like this` a directive to bold the substring "like this" in the previous line?

Yes. Of the form [bold|italic|underline|...] [text string to match]

The text is in blue, the format directive in purple, and the search string in yellow:

So this example would compile to html like `&lt;p&gt;writing format directives inline &lt;b&gt;like this&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;`

<https://www.xml.com/pub/a/w3j/s3.nelson.html|https://www.xml.com/pub/a/w3j/s3.nelson.html>

<https://zfdg.de/sb004_008|https://zfdg.de/sb004_008>

codexeditor on Twitter calls them standoff properties.

roff/troff/nroff?

```.nf
.ll 4.0i
.in 2.0i
101 Main Street
Morristown, NJ  07960
15 March, 1997
.sp 1i
.in 0
Dear Sir,

.fi
.ti 0.25i
I just wanted to drop you a note to thank you for spending the
time to give me a tour of your facilities. I found the experience
both educational and enjoyable. I hope that we can work together
to produce a product we can sell.```

Gordon Brander’s <https://subconscious.substack.com/p/subtext-markup-for-note-taking|Subtext> is a bit like this (format interpretation by single character at the beginning of each line)

Thanks <@UDJ2TKB99>! I don't think I saw that. Very similar (or using the terms from the post "convergent evolution").

Thanks for the pointers everyone! I made an initial implementation. <https://breckyunits.com/aftertext.html>

It’s cool to be able to see more examples and get a better idea of what it would be like. Now that you’ve played with it for real, what do you think about the after text formatting idea, <@UMVFWPZ36>?

*<@UFPPABQ7P> I really like it for links. For formatting like bolding et cetera, it's fine but I wouldn't call it an improvement (maybe a slight regression). So perhaps directives that take 1+ parameter like links are where it could shine. In other words, where you'd have HTML tags with multiple attributes this might be an improvement.*

I think there are more interesting moves at a higher level with other node types, but I'm glad aftertext is in and works and might prove more useful in the future